Realignment
by sve-aph
Summary: Catra and Adora face a messy but necessary break up. Catra chooses to make it way harder than necessary for mysterious reasons. Scorpia is hopelessly in love. Includes: lots of platonic cuddling, excessive quantities of ice cream, Scorpia being the best friend she could possibly be, and Entrapta carefully walking the cheerful line of legality.


It was going to be a bad breakup.

It was going to be a massively horrible, earth-shattering, world-changing, fridge-depleting, apocalyptic kind of breakup. Scorpia knew this because she knew Catra, and Catra wasn't going down without a fight. To be fair, she only knew that there was going to be a breakup because Entrapta had warned her. Entrapta knew those kinds of things.

Scorpia was feeding her hermit crabs when Catra stormed through the back door of Scorpia's house and dropped herself into a chair at the kitchen table. Scorpia went to the freezer to pull out the pints of ice cream she had bought to prepare for this day. She scooped a bowl for Catra and a bowl for herself, and placed them on the table with a lactose pill for Catra.

Catra dug into her ice cream with single-minded determination while Scorpia ate more slowly, waiting for Catra to start talking. It was unusual for Catra to not begin talking the moment she had an audience, and it was a sign of how upset she was. Scorpia desperately wanted to give her friend a hug but she knew that it would likely be unwelcome at the moment. She took a moment to text Entrapta to let her know that the breakup had happened, and then waited patiently for Catra to be ready to talk.

Catra finished eating, pushed her bowl to the center of the table, and put her head down on her crossed arms. "She's trying to leave me." Mumbled, barely perceivable.

"Adora is?"

"Yes. She tried to break up with me today. But I won't let her."

"You… you won't let her?" Scorpia would never pretend to understand the mechanisms of Catra and Adora's relationship, but she was pretty sure there had to be a level of consensus to remain a couple.

"No! She promised me that she would never leave me! I won't let her break her promise." Catra insisted.

"Did she say why she wanted to break up with you?"

"I mean! She got a full ride scholarship! So she's going to _college_ and she doesn't think she can handle a long-distance relationship so we have to break up! Which is _ridiculous;_ I can't believe she can be so _stupid_!"

"So it's not that she doesn't love you anymore, right?" Scorpia felt like it was wrong to use the word _love_ when Adora was the one who had left Catra here in pieces on Scorpia's kitchen table, shaking and sputtering and squinting away tears. Scorpia got up to get a blanket, wrapping it gently around Catra's slim shoulders.

"No, of course not!" Catra growled in pure bitterness. " _Of course_ she still loves me, but she's leaving me anyways!" The pair were silent for a moment, and Scorpia got up to put the ice cream bowls away before returning to the table.

"What are you going to do?"

"I am going to take a nap." Catra declared, wiping the back of her hand across her eyes and stalking off. Scorpia noted that her friend was heading towards Scorpia's room instead of the guest room, and she settled down on the couch to wait for Entrapta.

When Entrapta showed up, she pranced through the door with a grin on her face.

"Mission accomplished!" she said. "I've removed all of the Adora-bilia from Catra's locker, backpack, and home!"

"Adora-bilia?" Scorpia asked.

"Adora memorabilia! And I've replaced it with my favorite selfies of us! And tiny cupcakes! It'll be like they were never together!"

"I think she might notice the lack of Adora love notes in her binder cover, but it's a good idea regardless. A clean slate will help."

"Yes, I also stole her phone and deleted all their texts, emails, mentions of Adora on social media, and also all pictures of her now ex-girlfriend!"

"That's…" Scorpia sighed. "That might have been going a little far. Catra said she wasn't going to let Adora break up with her."

"That's not possible. If Adora says they're not dating, they're not dating." Entrapta pointed out.

"I know."

"So we'll just have to see what happens!" Entrapta pulled out her voice log and began recounting the hour's happenings, so Scorpia snagged her sketchbook from the coffee table and tuned her friend out.

* * *

Hours later, Catra crept out from the blanket nest she had made in Scorpia's room and joined her two best friends on the couch. They ate spaghetti while they watched WALL-E; Entrapta sprawled across multiple cushions with her head in Scorpia's lap while Catra curled carefully against Scorpia's side. Scorpia _loved_ her two best friends.

Catra cried throughout most of the movie, and Scorpia carefully braided her mane into soft pleats, trying to help keep her from overheating in her explosive grief. After WALL-E, they opened the ice cream again, and started on the Toy Story trilogy. Entrapta was happy to continue picking movies while Catra sobbed into Scorpia's arms. It didn't take her long to wear herself out again and fall asleep.

Scorpia texted her parents to let them know they were having a sleepover, wrangled the remote away from Entrapta, and settled further into the cushions to sleep. Once Entrapta's breathing slowed and Catra snuggled a little closer, Scorpia allowed herself to fall asleep herself.

* * *

Luckily, the next day was a Saturday. Adora would be at soccer practice, there would be no drill team practice, and Robotics Club didn't have another competition until the following weekend. It was such perfect timing that Scorpia briefly wondered if Adora had planned it that way, to make it easier for Catra. She tended to have the kind of foresight that said it was plausible.

Early in the morning, Scorpia received a text from Bow asking to meet up. She agreed, told Entrapta to keep track of Catra, and headed out.

As the manager of the soccer team, Bow definitely should have been at practice, which told Scorpia that this meeting was very important. They met in the local park and greeted each other with an enthusiastic hug. Scorpia first met Bow when she tried out for the soccer team. Although she was rejected in a way that left a sour taste in her mouth, she remained good friends with Bow, who had apologized for the coach's treatment of her.

"Bow!" Scorpia greeted happily. "How are you? How is the team?"

"Great! We're great; I'm great! Adora is really taking us far this season!"

"That's awesome! She seems like a really strong player!"

"Yeah… about Adora…" Bow hedged, rocking back on his heels.

"Yes. What about Adora?" Scorpia crossed her arms, standing straight to her full height.

"She's pretty heartbroken, man." Bow said, meeting her eyes. "She was really convinced that Catra would stay with her."

"Wait, what?" Scorpia suddenly felt that she was not qualified for this conversation.

"Adora. She said that she and Catra had promised that they'd stick together forever, and now suddenly Catra is backing out?" Bow's voice was gentle as he noticed Scorpia's confusion. "What did Catra tell _you_?"

"She just told me that Adora is leaving her. And then she cried for like, nine hours."  
"Jeez," Bow whispered. "I am so confused."

Scorpia sighed, thinking about what she knew. "I am going to go home. And I am going to comfort my best friend. And when she's ready, I'll ask her what the hell is going on. And then I'll text you, 'kay?" Bow nodded in agreement.

"'Kay. I'll see you around, Scorpia. Drive safe." And the two waved before parting ways again.


End file.
